Observer lack of coverage hardly surprising

A copy of the email I sent to Langston Wertz this morning...thank you to all who post scores and other notes so we can keep up with what is going on...sure can't find the same level of coverage baseball vs. softball in the Disturber...

And you wonder why I refuse to subscribe to the Charlotte Self-Server? I could have told you this beforehand, but try doing a comparison of the coverage of the HS baseball championships vs. the HS softball championships....

Baseball...on front page of website
Softball...nothing

Baseball...links to 4 separate articles on front page of website
Softball...nothing

Baseball...entries under today's bloggers
Softball...nothing

Baseball...5 blog entries in June
Softball...a mention of the schedule.....o-o-o-o-o-h

Don't hurt yourself down there......and don't cry to me about a short staff or any other reason...I worked in radio, TV and newspapers for 12 years in Western NY....I know the
routine...you can get stuff done if you WANT to.....

 

Not sure why you are surprised by this. At last check there were no teams from Charlotte in the Softball Championships yet there is Charlotte teams in the Baseball Championships. It is called the CHARLOTTE Observer. They certainly had coverage when Charlotte softball teams were in the playoffs and they had great coverage of the SW4A conference tournament and article about Ardrey Kell winning the Conference tournament. I think they did a much better job this year than in years past of softball coverage. Dont take me wrong, I would like to see more coverage of softball, but i think you are comparing apples to oranges in this situation.

 

I was pleased to see that in our local paper a regular season softball game got more space and more pictures than a playoff baseball game. Only happened once, may never happen again, but I was certainly proud when I saw it!!!

 

It's my opionion if the Observer distributes their papers to an area- they should cover that school's sports. I don't buy their newspaper simply based on this fact. Their orange boxes are all over our town. I would much rather read about local games than the Panthers or Robertcats. This has been an issue for me many years- nothing different this year. Just read the paper today- no pictures from Raleigh- just the bare facts. Heck, I'd rather read about a high school player's success that I don't even know than read about what the poor Panthers are gonna do with Julius Peppers. If the Robertcats want to fill their arena- either suit Jordan up or draft Curry.

 

I agree with you, beaverfan. I've had discussions with Langston about this. In fact he has discussed it on here. The fact remains that Preps is a loud voice, but a small one when it comes to sports interest. The majority of interest comes from the players and their families...the majority of sports interest comes from those who care less about HS sports--except for HS football.

But Langston was very candid about this message. Money talks....if advertisers would demand HS sports recognition, you would see much more HS articles. But keep this in mind. The newspaper business is in serious trouble and the Charlotte Observer is not immune. They have made drastic cuts in their staffing and according to those "in the know", the newspaper business in general is in deep doo-doo. How will this affect Preps sports? You will see less of it in the future. It does not pull in advertising like professional sports does.

 

This is one of many threads that we had discussions with Langston

http://www.thisboardrocks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84688

 

I said I was hardly surprised, which means that it was pretty much what I expected. They couldn't even coordinate coverage with the N&O? I'm more upset about the continuing disparity of amount of coverage of girls sports, excluding football.

OK, what Charlotte team is playing in the 2A baseball finals, got a full article on their game and a preview article?

Distance from Mint and Morehead to Morganton - 74.24 miles

Distance from Mint and Morehead to Taylorsville - 64.7 miles

 

Some up dated

CO has some updates. but not complete. Will be tomorrow Iguess.....

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/story/766063.html

 

I don't read the Charlotte Observer so I can't speak from firsthand knowledge. I do understand that many times the big city papers lack some of the "bam!" covering our kids in softball, all while the small time, no disrespect, cover every inch of a kids progress. We all know that just because a kid lives in a small town, she's not as good as a kid in the big city right? LOL. I'll bet my right arm, I'm lefthanded, that more baseball and softball superstars are bred in small towns.
As for the press in a big city paper, they have a job to do, and if the powers that be consider a story, ie softball or baseball, important, and it helps sell papers , then the story will be reported.
Tim Stevens of the News and Observer is one of, if not the best, at placing prep stories in a big time paper.
Go look at the N&O and see how Tim covers preps across the board. 4A to 1A and independent, no matter the sport or gender, Tim Stevens is damn good at his job.
No wonder he's won top honors in his profession.
Thanks Mr. Stevens
Fish

 

Yea I understand where you are coming from...as a fan from Taylorsville the Hickory Daily Record is the local DAILY newspaper..but AC is rarely mentioned...but Patton's Baseball team has a large picture and nearly the entire front page..last time i checked...Taylorsville is closer than Morganton...i dont get it either...Taylorsville has a weekly paper but who wants to wait a week to see if the high school softball team won their games...A WEEK AGO! I guess something is better than nothing though...